Boston-Power Secures $8 Million in Series A Financing

WESTBOROUGH, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Boston-Power, Inc.^™, an early stage provider of portable power solutions, today announced it has raised $8 million in first round financing led by investors Venrock Associates and Gabriel Venture Partners. Prior to this investment, the company received seed round funding from private investors including company Chairman Carol Latham. The company also announced its board of directors, comprising battery industry visionaries and prominent business advisors.

“We target the power and energy sectors and we’ve heard many proposals from a range of companies”

Boston-Power is led by CEO and founder Dr. Christina Lampe-Onnerud, among the world's foremost authorities in battery system innovation and design. Strategy and technology advisor to the global battery industry, Dr. Lampe-Onnerud has assembled a world-class team with more than 100 years of combined experience in Lithium-ion technology. Headquartered in Westborough, Mass., Boston-Power also has established Six Sigma-level manufacturing operations in Shenzhen, China.

“The Lithium-ion battery technology powering the portable devices consumers rely upon – laptops as well as PDAs and mobile phones – has reached a critical point in its evolution,” said Dr. Lampe-Onnerud. “In January 2005, Boston-Power set out to develop a Lithium-ion battery pack system that would meet the market need now, deliver the highest quality and safety available and still provide industry best performance by a dramatic margin. It was an ambitious goal, and the group we’ve assembled has achieved it. By pairing our industry and operational expertise with that of our investors and advisors, we’re poised to bring our first products to market in the near term.”

“We target the power and energy sectors and we’ve heard many proposals from a range of companies,” said Scott Chou, partner with Gabriel Venture Partners. “Boston-Power stood out for its unparalleled talent, vision, innovative approaches to chemistry, design and manufacturing, and its ability to deliver solutions to the market now.”

“For the past several years, Dr. Lampe-Onnerud has been keynoting industry and government events worldwide, defining the mounting crisis facing battery technology and what must be done to address it,” said Michael Feinstein, general partner with Venrock Associates. “With the recent battery recalls and consumers’ insatiable demand for power-hungry personal electronics products, the situation she identified is now unfolding. Venrock only invests when there’s the right combination of unmatched executive and engineering talent, combined with substantial market growth opportunity. Boston-Power meets those specifications perfectly.”

Members of the world-class team supporting Dr. Onnerud include CTO Per Onnerud, an internationally renowned battery inventor and technology developer who is a leader in worldwide patent strategy and execution. Vice President of Sales Bob Hyotte joins Boston-Power with senior sales and marketing experience from technology companies including Primax/Polaris Electronics, Lexmark International and Honeywell International. CFO Paul Hallee brings to the team over 25 years of experience in finance at high technology companies, with a focus on the enterprise software and systems industry.

The board of directors Boston-Power announced today comprises battery industry experts and business veterans:

Chairman Carol Latham, founder and former CEO of Thermagon, successfully acquired by Laird Technologies in 2004
Anders Barsk, senior strategist and private investor in early stage technology companies, currently sitting on boards of directors including Qbrick and Nilar International
Michael Feinstein, general partner, Venrock Investments with a history of successful IT investments in networking, components and software infrastructure
Scott Chou, general partner, Gabriel Venture Partners and leader of Gabriel's Disruptive Technologies practice
Dr. Christina Lampe-Onnerud, CEO and founder

For more information on Boston-Power, please visit www.boston-power.com.

About Boston-Power

Boston-Power, Inc.^™ is an emerging portable power company answering the call for safer, longer lasting Lithium-ion batteries – today. The company is led by CEO and Founder Dr. Christina Lampe-Onnerud, one of the world's foremost authorities in battery system innovation and design, and backed by leading venture capital firms including Venrock Associates and Gabriel Venture Partners. Boston-Power’s innovative systems approach to portable power and application-specific batteries starts with safety, while achieving next-generation performance gains. Founded in 2005, the company is headquartered in Westborough, Massachusetts with Six Sigma-level manufacturing operations in Shenzhen, China. For more information, please visit www.boston-power.com.

About Venrock Associates

Venrock Associates is one of this country’s premier venture capital firms with offices in New York, Menlo Park, and Cambridge, MA. Originally established as the venture capital arm of the Rockefeller family, Venrock continues a six-decade tradition of funding entrepreneurs and establishing successful, enduring companies. Having invested more than $1.8 billion in more than 400 companies over the past 37 years, Venrock’s investment returns place it among the top tier venture capital firms that have achieved consistently superior performance. Venrock focuses its investments on early-stage companies in information technology, healthcare, and emerging technologies. These include: Intel, Apple Computer, StrataCom, Check Point Software, and DoubleClick; Centocor, Idec Pharmaceuticals, Sugen, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, and Illumina. For more information, please visit Venrock’s website at www.venrock.com.

About Gabriel Venture Partners

Gabriel Venture Partners® is a venture capital firm committed to building industry leaders by actively partnering with entrepreneurs to build the market leaders of tomorrow in technology and technology-enabled businesses. Gabriel is based in Silicon Valley and has over $260 million under management. Gabriel's investment team consists of seasoned technology entrepreneurs and industry executives, each with international operating experience and strong domain expertise. Representative investments include Placeware (acquired by Microsoft), NetScaler (acquired by Citrix), and Iridigm (acquired by Qualcomm), as well as India investments such as Allsec (IPO), IL&FS Investsmart (IPO), and Provogue (IPO). For more information, please visit http://www.GabrielVP.com.